Welcome to Schouw & Co.'s Q1 presentation. I will, as usual, go through the presentation, and then afterwards I will open up for questions. Schouw & Co. had in the quarter a satisfying quarter. We performed well in very difficult times. You could say that somewhat soft development was expected, and we also have to acknowledge that the uncertainty in the business environment, of course, also in one or another way impacted our businesses. We came out of the quarter as expected. Our top line was flat with DKK 7.9 billion, and EBITDA was, as expected, down 13% to DKK 565 million. 2024 Q1 was positively impacted from one-offs of around DKK 65 million. Our cash flow continued with very good traction and came in with DKK 220 million for the quarter. Schouw & Co. continues to evaluate a potential IPO of BioMar.
It's likely that a banking syndicate is established in the near future. Of course, the actual business climate needs also to be taken into consideration when one is considering these IPO thoughts. Looking from Schouw & Co. to BioMar, BioMar really continued to perform very well and strengthen its position. The top line was up 5% to DKK 3.4 billion, and the volume increased 12% to 294,000 tons. We have, over the last year, offset tonnage a little bit to get our margins up, and we have succeeded with that. Especially the salmon and shrimp segment delivered the main part of the tonnage uplift. Of course, still, we have continued focus on margin and profitability, but scale is also a very important driver for BioMar. EBITDA was, as expected, down 24% to DKK 206 million. Q1 2024 was exceptionally strong, both on climate issues and on margin.
As mentioned also, we had one-offs of DKK 65 million, which came from BioMar in Q1 2024. Working capital significantly reduced to DKK 1.75 billion. Interesting also that our shrimp customers seem to be willing now to invest in innovation, meaning also that our tech division, or particularly our AQ1, had a very good quarter. BioMar continues to invest and build strengths, meaning that we acquired the remaining 50% of the JV we have in Costa Rica, and we also acquired full ownership of our R&D facility in Let's Sea in Norway, all in all investments of around DKK 100 million in the quarter. Guidance for BioMar maintained, turnover in the magnitude of DKK 16 billion-17 billion, and EBITDA in the range of DKK 1.47 billion-1.57 billion. BioMar continues to have full focus on utilizing the innovative platform and also looking for scale and margin management. Moving on to GPV.
GPV's market continued to be volatile with rather soft demand. Top line was expected 5% down to DKK 2.2 billion. GPV's EBITDA came down 8% to DKK 143 million as expected. We had, of course, impact from lower volume and mix. A lot of activities are going on across the company to stimulate profitability, factory footprints, different things are going on. One ERP system is now implemented or initiated to be implemented across all companies. Decided footprint initiatives are progressing well. We are optimizing the structure and the platform, and to accommodate that, we will see one-offs in the tune of DKK 40 million in 2025. Soft demand is expected to continue in the first half of 2025, but guidance maintained. We expect now a top line of DKK 8.7 billion-9.3 billion. EBITDA in the range of DKK 590 million-650 million.
As I mentioned in this EBITDA guidance, that is included DKK 40 million in one-offs. Order intake really supports our guidance, seems to be improving. We have a book-to-bill index that is quite good and looking into interesting order intake in the coming months. Moving on then to HydraSpecma, and now we will see if it changes here. On the technology, I will move on to the HydraSpecma slide here. HydraSpecma really continues to deliver very solid and top line 3% up to DKK 800 million. There was very good traction in renewables and our global OEM segment. EBITDA up 27% to DKK 180 million. However, we had a one-off positive impact from sale of real estate, normalized for one-offs. EBITDA was up 12%. There has been an effect of very solid margin management and control across all companies within HydraSpecma, and also a positive effect of continuously optimizing the supply chain.
HydraSpecma is preparing for the future, building a very solid project pipeline and relocating a lot of the products to best cost countries. They are also taking strong positions in the defense segment. The top line guidance is maintained, EBITDA up, meaning that the top line will be DKK 2.9 billion-DKK 3.2 billion, and EBITDA now expected to be in the range of DKK 350 million-DKK 380 million. Oh, automotive is really hampered by a mix of fierce competition and cost increases. Top line was flat, DKK 506 million, but our new segment, Newman, really had a good and positive development in the quarter. EBITDA was down 32% to DKK 32 million. Margins at all levels in the Newman segment have been under severe pressure, but also we have to recognize that we had a negative core regulation of DKK 12 million hampering results in the quarter.
Borg is relocating their production to both Poland and Tunisia. Our racks and PSR produced in the U.K. will be moved to Lublin in Poland, and basic products as starters and alternators will start to be moved to our newly acquired facility in Tunisia. Borg is downgrading their top line and EBITDA due to fierce competition, due to a lot of inflow of new-made products from China. China is really sending a lot of products into Europe because they cannot deliver in the U.S. because of the tariffs. Top line now expected to be DKK 2 billion-DKK 2.2 billion. EBITDA is DKK 150 million-DKK 180 million. Borg has initiated a comprehensive profit protection plan, and it's initiated to deliver both on the short and the long term. Moving on then to Fibertex Personal Care, really developed much better than feared. Fibertex Personal Care delivered much better than expected.
Top line decreased, however, 4% to DKK 447 million. Asia volume slightly down, but Europe came in with very good development. EBITDA was flat at DKK 49 million. It's very good to see that margins in Asia are better than feared. Volume in Asia is also improving a little bit. We are here benefiting from long-term quality and trustworthiness with a lot of global customers. Also good to see that the future potential is reconfirmed for Fibertex Personal Care. Asia starts slowly to get their momentum back. Our position in Europe has been strengthened, and our innovation platform continues to be very strong. We are giving a guidance uplift on EBITDA. Top line expected to be maintained DKK 1.4 billion-DKK 1.6 billion, and EBITDA with a small uplift now in the range of DKK 140 million-DKK 170 million. Moving on to Fibertex Nonwovens.
Fibertex Nonwovens kept sales momentum in rather difficult markets for them. Top line flat at DKK 579 million. Segment and product mix was different than in Q1 2024. The EBITDA down 26% as expected to DKK 43 million. Here we saw this expected negative effect from mix. Our high margin segments came out soft. Good to see also that the U.S. volume is up, but U.S. volume is still with lower margins, but margins in the U.S. are continuously improving. Our U.S. transformation plan is really starting to show results. Productivity and quality at the new factory in the U.S. has really significantly improved. Value-adding volume continues to kick in, and there's really a strong demand in the U.S. for domestically produced products, which we expect the Fibertex Nonwovens to benefit from in the near future. Full year guidance maintained in spite of soft Q1.
Top line expected DKK 2.3 billion-DKK 2.5 billion, and EBITDA still expected in the range of DKK 200 million-DKK 230 million. Of course, improvements in the U.S. and our decommoditizing strategy, they are both important levers in our expectations. Concluding and looking into our guidance, our full year guidance maintained despite volatility. We expect still to deliver EBITDA of DKK 2.82 billion-DKK 3.12 billion. And why are we still maintaining our guidance? Because we have different positive key drivers. We are seeing very strong positions and long relations with our key customers globally. We have continued innovation and high service. Our solid back order backlog and really progressing. In all our companies, we have profit protection plans and contingency plans at hand if things should change. All in all, guidance for the year maintained. With that, I will conclude my remarks and then open up for questions.
Klaus, Elmer, welcome. Are you muted, Klaus, or you can't hear?
No, I'm not muted. Okay, sorry about that. There we are. Thank you. I will do some questions, and I will start out with some specific BioMar questions. Yeah. Given the Q1 performance, and I know you think this was in line with your own expectations, but margins are down year-year at least. Should we expect BioMar to head for the mid to the lower end of the range? Or how should we think about this?
I think we have the range, and we have no concerns on not being able to deliver in the range. I think also normally we say, okay, in the range, most likely in the midpoint of the range, but still opportunities for BioMar. We see biological conditions good. We are in a good margin management situation.
We're still confident on guidance with BioMar. Still, it's first season. You know also that Q1 is a low season and so on, but still positive on BioMar. Even in the high end of the range. I'm not commenting on that. We have a range, and we could, when we have the range, Klaus means also that we could also deliver up there if things go well.
Sure. Okay. Raw materials are coming down. Does that have an impact on your profitability, at least compared to last year? Is there anything on the raw material development that is impacting your profitability?
Not as we see it.
Absolutely. Okay.
Not as we see it right now, because you also know that especially in the Norwegian salmon, we have under contract, we have these pass-on mechanisms on and off and so on, but mainly at the rest of the world, we need to go and discuss with our customers on every contract and so on. Also, we do a lot of recipe optimizations, utilize our raw material platform, and we have a very, very long experience in that. We do not see any issues on that side.
Right. Okay, so then talk about the margins. Margins year-to-year is down when we adjust for this DKK 65 million one-offs last year. Maybe we put some more color on. Above 6% is still very, very positive in historical perspective, but it is still down versus 2024. What did really happen in the quarter?
Yeah, of course there is a mix.
You also know when we are having a high volume in salmon, margins are a bit lower than in the other segments. We saw, I think also you could see that volume in the salmon segment was positive and up. It is in the first quarter where we have not had the same sale of functional feed as we have in the other quarters and so on. It is a mix of functional feed. It is a mix of species, etc. You saw shrimp business significantly up. It is a mix of less functional sale, species mix, etc. We are not concerned on the margin development as such.
Sorry about all these questions, but all these lower functional feed share down, is there any specific? I only talk about salmon because it is salmon that is seeing lower margins.
Why is it down in this quarter?
Yeah, you could say, of course, it's also a small quarter in volume in general compared to later on, but also you don't use as much functional feed in the quarter, in the first quarter, because it has been good biological conditions. We haven't seen as many sea lice. A lot of things have played good out in the quarter compared to earlier.
Right. Okay. And then just the final one. Chile is down year-to-year on volume. Why is that? I would have thought that was not the development I would have expected at least.
Yeah, but Chile have had some difficult biological conditions, and then also we have changed around on some contracts, but we have regained contracts and we expect volume to pick up in Chile.
Of course, if you move around on one or two contracts, things can happen in a quarter.
Regain contracts, written on lower margins or is that on unchanged terms?
Yeah, but it is on unchanged terms or at least at good margins. You also know the drill that when we get in on a contract with what we call basic feed, then we need to work on selling up and really getting the product mix changed and so on. It is a big challenge, but we have been very strong in doing that over the last years.
Okay. That was all for me. Thank you so much for the answers.
Thank you, Klaus. Sendra, welcome.
Hi. Good morning. You hear me? Okay, okay.
Loud and clear.
That is good. I think Klaus asked a lot of the questions about BioMar, but I have a couple more.
Looking at the volume side, I think doing computation here, salmon feed volumes were up like approximately 7%, I think. Can you say something about market share development in Norway? Because I think at least feeding statistics indicate about 25% volume growth in the first quarter, but that's feeding. It's not feed purchasing.
Exactly. You're right. Yeah. I think we have kept our market share. You know, also we have our customer base, and of course it can fluctuate a little bit up and down. How much does your customer base have in BioMar at sea? We haven't seen huge fluctuations on market share. You also know it's a capacity question and so on. We are with the customer for longer term. No significant movements on market share.
Okay. Just a detailed question on that.
I thought during your fourth quarter call, you said that Nova Sea was a customer of yours and that's been acquired by Mowi. How does that play out?
Yeah, normally we don't comment on individual customer contracts, but I still think that we still have Nova Sea in our customer portfolio and also expect to have them in the longer run.
Okay. Finally, on BioMar, I think your tech segment is doing well. You commented briefly on looking at your EBITDA from virtually zero to DKK 13 million. Not a big number of the total yet, but can you say something about the outlook there?
I didn't hear that. AQ1. Yeah, sorry, sorry. Yeah, the AQ1. No, but they really delivered a quite solid Q1.
I think also we are texting that we see some of the major shrimp customers globally starting to get interest back in new technology and so on. We are positive on that and expect it to continue to grow in the market. Yeah.
Okay. This growth more than 100%, is that?
I mean, of course, it is not a big impact on BioMar's EBITDA or EBIT, but still, if they push on and develop, we expect them to develop significantly better than last year. Of course, that is also part of our positive guidance on profitability within BioMar.
Okay. Excellent. Thank you, Jens.
Thank you very much. Yeah, Emil Hågård. Kjell-Nikki.
Yes, thank you. I think the specific company questions have already been asked. My first question is of a more general character across all portfolio companies.
Could you provide some additional color on the macroeconomic environment as you see it, specifically where you see the greatest areas of exposure, the expected impact of tariff? I think importantly, the measures you can take to mitigate these. Additionally, how have you experienced demand in the market post these tariffs? That would be the first question.
Yeah. Thank you. Super relevant. First, you could say, of course, I think also I elaborated a little bit on that in my introduction, saying that, of course, we have seen volatility, meaning also some customers holding back a little bit on orders, waiting, and things like that. It has had an impact, but not a significant impact on that. Moving on to say, what's our business in the U.S.?
We have annually business of around DKK 2 billion in the U.S., and we are producing ourself in the U.S. of around, I think it's DKK 8,900 million altogether, meaning the rest is imported into the U.S.. Some is coming from Mexico, and some is coming from Asia. Of course, we're looking into tariff impacts and so on. Our mitigation and our way of viewing it is saying we are not participating in this tariff. Our customers need to pay the tariff, and we have also products that a lot of our customers, they cannot be without them because it goes into their production and so on. We have a clear stand on that, and we look at it from case to case and say we cannot really prepare a lot because we don't know what happens tomorrow.
Of course, looking into supply chain and more regionalization and things like that, that's what we are working on, I mean.
Okay. As I understand it, to a large extent, you expect to be able to pass on these tariffs to customers?
So far, yes, we do. You could also say if we should take, let's just say some of our, we are low margin business in general, and therefore we need to have a quite firm stand on that, saying that we cannot support and offset all these tariffs because then we cannot make a business out of it. It is better to say, okay, sorry, we are not the one supplying if you want us to take full responsibility for these tariffs. Let's see what really happens. We were very nervous on Mexico.
We have a big facility in Mexico for electronics, and things have changed so much there that maybe that could be a small opportunity for us. Also, producing in the U.S., especially in the fiber businesses where we do not import a lot of raw materials from China. Yeah, that's the way it is.
Makes sense. As of now, with the ongoing uncertainty around these, you have not included any of these tariffs in the current guidance?
No, we haven't. Maybe one thing I should comment on is, of course, we are looking cautiously on what happens in the world. Would the business climate be a little bit more negative, meaning that in general, demand would be soft and things like that? Of course, that's a concern we are having.
All by a sudden, you could say the automotive industry in Europe starts to soften a little bit, meaning that they are not taking the orders we expected and things like that, or the renewable business and so on. So far, we are cautiously optimistic on the future.
Perfect. Thank you for the additional color on this. Just a last question from my side. I, of course, have to ask about the ongoing evaluation of potential IPO of BioMar because there is naturally quite some market interest in this. Could you provide any kind of indication of when you expect to be in a position to communicate a final decision from the evaluation to the market?
To be honest, I cannot say when, but I think also we commented on it in the report saying that we are closing up on being able to appoint a banking syndicate, also meaning that we are moving. We are, of course, looking at valuation and opportunities. I think also I said that with the present business climate, of course, things are also going on. We have to evaluate, is it the right time to do it? Of course, also preparing BioMar as what we call IPO readiness. Honestly, we could not do it before very, very late 2025 or into 2026 because a lot of things need to be done. We are moving. I think bank syndicate is the first real indicator of that things are going in that direction.
Yes, that's clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Emil. Super.
Thank you very much. Yeah, YSU, ACB, welcome.
Yeah, it's away from ACB. Thank you for taking my question. I just want to follow up on the BioMar margin. You mentioned these mixed effects in Q1. What do you expect for the coming quarters? Any factors we should consider that can drive the year-over-year margin improvement or even at the same level as last year in the coming quarters? I am asking because I can see that Q2, Q3, Q4, the comparison would not be that easy when I am looking at the gross profit per kilo, which is an important margin driver.
Yeah. No, thank you for asking that specific question because I think you are pointing at something very interesting. Q1, of course, lower volume, meaning that scale and volume and factory utilization, of course, will drive margin in the good direction.
As I also said, in the coming quarters, we will see much bigger effect from selling functional feed. We are getting into the real grower season and things like that. Effect of scale, productivity, logistics, and then, of course, also functional feed. It is a multiple of different levers that will secure that margin increase. We always see that. We feel quite confident that the margins in Q1 are always lower than looking into the coming quarters.
Okay. That is very clear. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Good. With that question, we do not have any other questions online. Thank you very much for dialing in and listening to this presentation. Thanks for the questions. Goodbye from here.